‘İstanbul might not get over the second wave of pandemic’

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"No matter how much we call them, patients still feel lonely, abandoned and hopeless... Most of them cannot cope with this on their own."

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the TTB Family Medicine Branch have shared the results of their "Pandemic Survey on Family Medicine - October 2020" in an online statement for the press.

While the statement has been attended by TTB Central Council Chair Şebnem Korur, TTB Central Council Member Kazım Doğan Eroğulları and TTB Family Medicine Branch Secretary Nuri Seha Yüksel, the results have been shared by TTB Family Medicine Branch Member Emrah Kırımlı.

The first of these surveys was carried out in September 2020. Shared with the public today (October 22), the second survey was conducted between October 7 and 14. Since March 18, family physicians have been following the COVID-19 cases and contacts by calling them by phone.

Dr. Emrah Kırımlı has underlined that family physicians have directly experienced and closely followed the problems that have occured in this period, adding that at least one healthcare worker in 41 percent of Family Health Centers has so far contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

'There is confusion, lack of information...'

Some of the complaints expressed by family physicians as part of the TTB's October 2020 survey are as follows:

"There is confusion about information; companies call people to work if they test negative while district directorates of health say that they need to stay home during isolation. People do not know what to do...

"While one patient is put under medical monitoring, another person in the same situation is not. It is not clear based on what it is differentiated...

"People are not told at hospitals that they need to stay home; patients come to us after hospital. They come to us to get a report most of the time...

"It is said that if a close contact who is under medical monitoring develops the symptoms and goes to a hospital by his or her own means, he or she will be fined because of that..."

The center is now İstanbul, not Ankara

While the ones who answered the survey from İstanbul said that there were an average of 1,714 new daily cases in the city in September, this number has increased to 2,824 in the October survey.

"While the average number of daily cases was 2,671 in Ankara in September, it has dropped to 2,125 in October. These figures overlap with the Ministry of Health statement regarding a 50-percent increase in İstanbul and with the observations reported from the field."

The reasons why İstanbul is riskier have been explained as follows:

"Universities are planned to be reopened. The outbreak is at the stage of explosion, the young will pose an additional risk for spreading the disease.

"The elderly have returned from their hometowns to their childrens' homes in İstanbul, which means that a high risk group has returned to a city where measures have been eased just before the outbreak explodes.

"With the opening of schools, the traffic congestion will increase and the risk of being in crowded places in public transport will increase.

"The opening of primary schools, the 8th and 12th grades and the onset of seasonal influenza season mean a very risky concurrence.

"İstanbul is entering a period that is riskier than April. Both the society and healthcare workers are faced with a risk of being unable to get over a riskier second wave." (AS/SD)